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Disturbing statistics of forced conversions, murders, and rapes of religious minorities in Bangladesh: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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Disturbing statistics of forced conversions, murders, and rapes of religious minorities in Bangladesh: Reports

The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance has informed that a total of 154 religious minorities, including Hindus, were killed in the country between January and December 2022.

The organsiation held a press conference in Dhaka on Friday (January 5) morning during which it presented the annual report of atrocities on Bangladeshi minorities.

Also known as the Bangladesh Jatiyo Hindu Mahajot, it revealed that 39 women belonging to the minority communities were raped (27 of them were gang-raped). About 14 of the victims were killed after committing rape.

Besides, it stated that 62 religious minorities went missing in 2022 and 849 people were threatened with death. Another 424 religious minorities were attempted to be killed and 360 of them were left injured.

According to Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance Secretary General, Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, a whopping 89,990 acres of land belonging to religious minorities in the country remain occipied. And 572 families were also evicted from their homes last year.

Pramanik informed that 445 families of religious minorities were forced to leave Bangladesh altogether. In all, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other minorities suffered a total financial loss of Taka 220 crore 89 lakh.

The annual report of atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh said that about 319 families and temples were looted while 173 businesses were vandalised in 2022. Moreover, 519 cases of arson and 891 cases of attacks on residences were also registered.

The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance also pointed out that there have 128 instances of temple attack, 72 cases of idol theft and 481 cases of vandalism in the last year. It added that 152 religious minorities were forcibly converted in 2022 and attempts for conversion were made on 40 others.

The Hindu organisation said that about 791 religious minorities were arrested on false cases of blasphemy. It lamented that a hateful environment of intolerance has been created in Bangladesh and that the Hindu community has never been able to experience ‘real freedom.’

The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance demanded the establishment of 60 reserved seats and separate electoral system in the National Parliament of the country. It also demanded setting up of Ministry of Minority Affairs and to prevent violence against the Hindu community and other religious minorities.

Hindu home attacked, idol vandalised by leader of youth wing of ruling Awami League party

In November 18 last year, the residence of a Hindu family was attacked and their puja mandap was vandalised in the Kostapara area in Bhuanpur Upazila in Tangail district in the Dhaka Division of Bangladesh.

As per reports, the home belonged to local Hindu resident Subhas Ghosh. About 10 members of his family were injured during the attack and at least 4 out of them were admitted to the Bhuanpur Upazila Health Complex for medical treatment.

Those hospitalised in the aftermath of the attack were identified as Ratan, Nikhil, Ashok, and Shanto Ghosh. On the other hand, the accused was identified as Khorshed Bepari.

Flight service between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela begins ahead of Hockey World Cup, CM Patnaik thanks PM Modi and Civil Aviation Minister

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Flight service between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela begins ahead of Hockey World Cup, CM Patnaik thanks PM Modi and Civil Aviation Minister

Under the UDAN initiative, operations of commercial flight services between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela commenced on Saturday morning.

Flagging off the first flight to Rourkela Airport from Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar this morning, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that this new air connectivity would help Odisha and its people.

On this occasion, CM Naveen Patnaik tweeted and expressed his thanks and appreciation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his support to improve connectivity to the hinterland of Odisha under UDAN.

“Glad to have flagged off the 1st flight to Rourkela Airport. Thank PM Narendra Modi ji for the support to improve connectivity to the hinterland of Odisha under UDAN. It will boost connectivity, commerce and tourism, fulfilling aspirations of people of the region,” he said in a tweet.

He also thanked Union Minister Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia for all his efforts especially to coordinate between the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the flight service to Rourkela Airport under UDAN ahead of Hockey World Cup 2023.

“Thank Union Min Scindia ji for all the efforts, especially to coordinate between SAIL and DGCA for the flight service to Rourkela Airport under UDAN ahead of HWC2023. It will offer seamless connectivity to sports fans coming to celebrate hockey in Odisha,” Patnaik tweeted.

He said that the new air connectivity will improve commerce in Odisha.

In his tweet, Patnaik said, “This new air connectivity would improve air connectivity between the Capital city of Bhubaneswar to the steel city of Odisha, Rourkela. It would improve commerce in Odisha. It would also help to develop tourism for Odisha.”

The Chief Minister further said that would provide seamless connectivity to sports fans coming to celebrate hockey in Odisha.

“With the Hockey World Cup 2023 taking place from January 13, 2023 in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, this new air operation would lead to Hockey fans enjoying swift and comfortable air mobility between the two cities where the Hockey World Cup 2023 is being held in Odisha,” he added.

(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)

Air India peeing case: Accused Shankar Mishra sent to 14-day judicial custody

OpIndia Staff
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Air India peeing case: Accused Shankar Mishra sent to 14-day judicial custody

On Saturday, January 7, Delhi’s Patiala House Court sent Shankar Mishra to 14-day judicial custody. Mishra is accused of urinating on a female co-passenger in an inebriated state while onboard Air India flight AI-102 on November 26, travelling from New York to Delhi. The court denied Mishra’s custody to the police and instead agreed for judicial custody.

Mishra was arrested earlier in the day by Delhi Police in Bengaluru and brought to Delhi.

The Delhi Police registered an FIR in the case on Wednesday and were looking for the accused since then. Several teams were constituted to nab the accused who was finally arrested from Bengaluru.

This comes after accused Shankar Mishra, who was absconding since the incident came to light, issued a statement through his lawyers claiming that he had paid ‘compensation’ to the victim and the lady displayed no intention of lodging a complaint.

Yesterday Shankar Mishra was fired from US financial services firm, Wells Fargo. Releasing a statement on Friday, January 6, 2023, Wells Fargo said the charges against Shankar Mishra were “deeply disturbing”.

Shankar Mishra worked as a vice president for the Indian chapter of Wells Fargo, which is a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California.

The incident occurred on November 26, 2022, but it only came to the fore after the media, on January 4, 2023, reported about the letter from the woman flyer submitted to Tata Group’s chairman N Chandrasekaran. In the letter, the woman, in her 70s, narrated her harrowing experience onboard Air India.

FIR filed against Congress’ Afzal Lakhani for pretending to be a ‘Thakkar’ to create enmity within the Hindu community on social media: Details

OpIndia Staff
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FIR filed against Congress’ Afzal Lakhani for pretending to be a ‘Thakkar’ to create enmity within the Hindu community on social media: Details

Youth Congress IT cell convener Afzal Lakhani, who was jailed for his derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother Hiraba, has been booked for allegedly posting on social media with the intention of deliberately defaming religion, caste, and institutions by assuming Hindu identity.

A complaint has been lodged at the Jamnagar police station by a person associated with the Hindu Sena and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) seeking legal action. On the basis of this, Jamnagar police have registered a case against Afzal under various sections and started an investigation.

A copy of the FIR is available with OpIndia in which the complainant has accused Afzal Lakhani of creating a fake ID called ‘Jigar Thakkar’ and posting derogatory remarks about Hindus, Brahmins, and RSS, etc.

“All the posts were baseless and full of malicious rumours and the accused, despite being from another religion (Muslim), tried to create enmity and animosity in different societies against the Brahmin caste by creating the identity of Thakkar community of Hinduism, misleading various castes by using this false identity,” the complaint said.

The posts about which the complaint has been made have been posted from a Facebook account called ‘Jigar Thakkar (Afzal Inc)’ in which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been described as a terrorist organization and Afzal Lakhani has demanded a ban on RSS.

Image Source: Facebook

In one of the posts, the RSS was accused of poisoning religious events.

Image Source: Facebook

A few other posts made comments about the Brahmin community.

Image Source: Facebook

The complainant said the post hurts his feelings towards caste and religion and makes him feel humiliated. He also provided screenshots of all these posts to the police.

Based on the complaint, Jamnagar police have registered a case against Afzal Lakhani under sections 153A, 295A, 298, 499, 500, 501, and 505(2) of the IPC and started further investigation.

It may be recalled that Afzal Lakhani, who works in the Congress IT cell, had made lewd and derogatory posts about the PM and his mother on his Facebook page after the death of PM Modi’s mother Hira ba. A case was also registered against him after that and he was arrested. He is currently in police custody and another complaint has been lodged against him.

Bengaluru school gets bomb threat on email, turns out to be hoax by a student of another school who did it for fun

OpIndia Staff
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Bengaluru school gets bomb threat on email, turns out to be hoax by a student of another school who did it for fun

On Saturday, January 7, the Karnataka police informed that a bomb threat mail sent to National Academy for Learning (NAFL) in Bengaluru was sent by a minor boy. It has been revealed that the minor that studies in a different school did it for ‘fun’.

In this case, the police took the minor boy from school and handed him over to the State Juvenile Justice Board. According to police, the boy was identified using the IP address used to send the threat email, and when questioned, he stated that he did it for fun. He told police that he obtained the school’s official email address through a Google search.

The hoax mail was sent on Thursday to the official email ID of NAFL in Basaveshwarnagar at 8:28 pm from the mail ID ‘[email protected]’.

On Friday, after noticing the mail at around 10:30 am on Friday, the school management informed the police. The email read: “I have four gelatine sticks of dynamite and I will blow it up tomorrow afternoon during lunch – your favorite student.”

Nearly 1,000 students were moved from their classrooms and evacuated to safe locations after receiving the mail. Tension prevailed on Friday among parents and locals after knowing about the threat mail and students being taken to safe places. Later, the students were allowed to meet their parents. 

The police deployed a bomb squad as well as a dog squad to find the bomb as mentioned in the mail. However, no explosives were recovered from the campus and later the police declared the threat a hoax.

Following a complaint registered by the school authorities, the police launched a probe, and tracked down the IP address from where the mail was sent.

Laxman B Nimbaragi, DCP West Bengaluru said that the minor student from another school sent the bomb threat mail without realizing the consequences that might follow. He added that a report will be given to Juvenile Board after further inquiry. 

Telangana: Brothers Azmath and Akbar Ali repeatedly rape a minor Hindu girl for 6 months, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Telangana: Brothers Azmath and Akbar Ali repeatedly rape a minor Hindu girl for 6 months, arrested

The Telangana police on Wednesday, January 4, arrested two brothers Azmath Ali and Akbar Ali from the Mills Colony area in the state’s Warangal district on charges of rape. The duo was arrested based on a complaint filed by the father of a 15-year-old Hindu girl, who accused the duo, living in their neighbourhood, of sexually assaulting his daughter several times in the last six months.

After receiving the complaint, police registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act in the wee hours of Wednesday and took up the investigation.

Speaking about the incident, Warangal Commissioner of Police, AV Ranganath on Wednesday night said that the Warangal police received a complaint from the parents of a minor girl stating that their daughter was allegedly lured and raped by two Muslim neighbours multiple times in the last six months.

The police official said that the team took immediate action after receiving the complaint.

“As we received the complaint, we immediately lodged an FIR in the wee hours and took the two accused persons into custody. Both the accused have been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act,” he said.

According to the authorities, the abuse began at the hands of the older brother, a 27-year-old man who works in a second-hand furniture store. He brought the minor girl to his house under the guise of befriending her and raped her. He continued to take advantage of the minor on several occasions.

When his 22-year-old brother came to know about it, he started sexually exploiting the minor girl as well. The unemployed younger brother assaulted her in an isolated area of the neighbourhood.

The duo also threatened the victim with dire consequences if she revealed the matter to her family or approached the police.

The girl, fearing repercussions did not share her ordeal with anyone. The matter came to light when the girl’s father suspected the behaviour of the youths and installed CCTV cameras in front of his house. As soon as the father realised what his daughter went through, he lodged a complaint with the Mills Colony Police Station on Tuesday.

BJP and members of Hindu organisations protest, demand quick action against accused

As the news of the incident spread, members of various Hindu outfits and the BJP gathered outside the Warangal PS demanding speedy action against the accused. The BJP members staged a dharna outside the police station alleging that the police had deliberately delayed registering a case in the matter.

On Thursday, an irate crowd attacked the accused persons’ residences and vandalised two-wheelers and windows of the residence. Later, along with the girl’s relatives, the mob blocked Warangal-Narsampet’s main road. They demanded the public hanging of the accused.

Kanjhawala hit and run case: Eyewitness Nidhi was arrested in 2020 in a drug smuggling case

ANI
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Kanjhawala hit and run case: Eyewitness Nidhi was arrested in 2020 in a drug smuggling case

Eyewitness Nidhi, who was riding pillion with Anjali Singh, the 20-year-old who died after her scooty was hit by a car that dragged her for several kilometers in the national capital on New Year’s Day, was earlier arrested in a drug smuggling case, Delhi Police said.

Nidhi was arrested in Agra in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, (1985) case according to an FIR registered in December 2020. Currently Nidhi is out on bail, police sources said. 

Nidhi had been intercepted and arrested on December 6, 2020 at the Agra railway station for bringing ganja (drugs) by train from Telangana. She was subsequently placed under arrest. Two boys named Sameer and Ravi were also arrested along with Nidhi.

Meanwhile, in the Kanjhawala case, Delhi Police said on Friday that Nidhi has been asked to join the investigation and clarified that she has not been arrested.

“There are media reports that Nidhi (eyewitness) has been arrested by police. It is clarified that she has been called by Police to join the investigation,” Delhi Police official said.

On Tuesday, Nidhi who was with Anjali at the time of the incident told the media that the latter was drunk on the day of the incident.

“She was in a drunken state but insisted on driving the two-wheeler. After being hit by the car, she came under the car and got dragged with it. I was scared and ran away and returned home, didn’t tell anything to anyone. It is the fault of the girl who was driving in an inebriated state. I insisted that she shouldn’t drive. I told her ‘I am conscious, let me drive’. She didn’t trust me and trusted herself instead,” Nidhi claimed on Tuesday.

Anjali’s body was found on January 1 in the Kanjhawala area of the national capital. She was dragged for over 12 kilometres by a car that hit her scooter near Sultanpuri. Seven accused in the case are now in the custody of Delhi Police.

“In the Sultanpuri case, the sixth accused Ashutosh has been arrested who had given false information to the police. Further investigation is on,” the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Delhi Police Sagar Preet Hooda said Friday.

The other five accused in the case- Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun and Manoj Mittal were arrested earlier. The five were driving the car that they borrowed from Ashutosh.

All the accused were taken to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital on Thursday night for a medical examination. Police said that they were taken during the night as a security precaution.

On Thursday, Hooda said that the other two accused were Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna. Both of them are the friends of the five men in custody and had tried to protect the accused.

According to the Special CP, the duo also attempted to tamper with the evidence as they tried to help the accused. A total of 18 teams of Delhi Police are investigating the case. During the interrogation, it was found that the car was driven by Amit, not Deepak.

(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)

Air India peeing case: The airline de-rosters a pilot and 4 cabin crew members after urination incidents

ANI
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Air India peeing case: The airline de-rosters a pilot and 4 cabin crew members after urination incidents

Faced with backlash after two back-to-back incidents of passengers relieving themselves on board Air India international flights surfaced, the airline has issued show cause notices to four of its cabin crew and one pilot and de-rostered them pending investigations.

Air India chief executive officer (CEO) Campbell Wilson on Friday asked the airline staff to report any instances of “any improper behaviour on board to authorities at the earliest even if the matter appears to be resolved”. In a letter to Air India employees, the CEO stated that timely action is necessary against those who don’t follow the flight rules.

Campbell said, “This week has, ‘regrettably’, been dominated by media headlines of which you are no doubt familiar. The repulsion felt by the affected passenger is totally understandable and we share her distress.”

He reiterated the importance of reporting untoward incidents onboard flights to authorities, even if the crew believes it has been resolved.

“Whilst the story is more complicated than has been reported, there are clearly some lessons we can and must learn. Most importantly is that, if an incident on our aircraft involves improper behaviour of such magnitude, we must report it to authorities at the earliest opportunity, even if we genuinely believe that the matter has been settled between the parties involved. The same applies in the case of passengers deemed to meet the threshold of ‘Unruly’,” the letter reads.

“We must also be clear on the standard of behaviour that is expected on our aircraft and take firm, decisive and timely action against those who do not comply,” he said.

“Though there are numerous cases in which we have done exactly this, I have asked that these, and other relevant aspects of the Safety and Emergency Procedures Manual, be immediately reiterated by operating departments and reinforced in recurrent training, and I ask each of you to reflect on what you would do if faced with such situations. As in any other area, knowledge and preparation underpin confidence and outcome,” the CEO added.

On Friday night Delhi Police arrested Shankar Mishra, the Mumbai resident, who had allegedly urinated on a co-passenger onboard the November 26 Air India flight between New York and Delhi. Mishra who allegedly in an inebriated condition, urinated on his co-passenger was arrested from Bengaluru and brought to Delhi, police said.

Police had issued a look out notice for the flyer after he had gone incommunicado and switched off his mobile phone, after the incident received wide media coverage. “After registering an FIR in the matter, we started tracking his location and found that he was in Bengaluru. However when we tried to contact him we found that the man had switched off his phone.”

The FIR was registered on January 4 based on a complaint given by the woman co-passenger to Air India. 

(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)

Bhavnagar: Hindus organise a massive rally demanding Disturbed Areas Act, submit a memorandum to Collector over changing demography

OpIndia Staff
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Bhavnagar: Hindus organise a massive rally demanding Disturbed Areas Act, submit a memorandum to Collector over changing demography

In different parts of Gujarat, the demographics are now changing due to the population imbalance. This simply means that in an area where people of one religious group used to live earlier, now the population of that religious group increases and decreases due to the uncontrolled property transaction, and the religious balance of the area is disturbed and friction increases. Therefore, a massive rally was held in Bhavnagar on Thursday 5th January 2023, under the leadership of Hindu organizations demanding the implementation of the Disturbed Areas Act.

It is worth mentioning that there has been a demand for the Act in Bhavnagar for the last 10 years, but it has not been accepted yet. There have also been several cases of religious clashes during this period. Accordingly, once again, the Hindu community has raised the demand for the imposition of the Disturbed Areas Act in Bhavnagar.

5,000 Hindus took to the streets

According to reports, more than 5,000 Hindus, including women and children chanting Jai Shri Ram, were seen at the rally from Jashunath Circle in Bhavnagar city to the collector’s office. However, due to a verbal clash with the Additional Collector, while sending the memorandum, the youth of the Hindu organization blocked the road of the Collector’s office for 30 minutes continuously and sang Ramdhun. The deputy collector finally accepted the memorandum and application letter for imposing the Disturbed Areas Act and went down from the office and calmed down the matter.

It is notable that requests have been made for decades to implement the Disturbed Areas Act in Bhavnagar, but with no relief of any kind, various Hindu organizations finally took to the streets.

The demand was conveyed to the Chief Minister and the Home Minister

According to locals, Hindus from many parts of Bhavnagar city are forced to sell their homes to non-Hindus and move to other places. As a result, the communal harmony of the city is decreasing. In such a situation, various Hindu organizations have written a letter to the Chief Minister, Minister of State for Home and Education Minister, demanding the implementation of the Disturbed Areas Act in Bhavnagar.

In the cities of the state including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot, the Disturbed Areas Act has been implemented in various areas and there has been a demand in Bhavnagar for a long time in this regard. People have demanded the government take a decision in this regard as early as possible.

For which particular areas did this demand arise?

The people in the rally demanded that if the Disturbed Areas Act is being implemented in various districts of Gujarat, then why not in Bhavnagar? The rally was joined by deputy mayors as well as BJP corporators. Property deals are currently taking place in areas including Crescent, Geeta Chowk, Meghani Circle, Ghogha Circle, and Ghogha Road in Bhavnagar city and in areas including major markets including Karchaliya Para. Concerns have been expressed by Hindu organizations about this.

In the cities of the state including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot, the Disturbed Areas Act has been implemented. Bhavnagar has also been demanding this for a very long time. It has been demanded to take a decision in this regard at the earliest. Apart from the organizations including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Rupani Hindu Ekta Manch, eight different mandals including Setubandh Manekwadi Mitra Mandal, Tilaknagar, Bordi Gate, Bhaga Talav made a joint representation in this regard.

What is the Disturbed Areas Act?

The Disturbed Areas Act is a law that monitors the sale and purchase of properties in the area and prevents it if need be. This law is mostly applied in areas where one community is making changes in demography and thereby putting other communities at risk.

Certain restrictions are imposed on the sale and purchase of properties in areas where sections of this law have been imposed. The owner of the property has to inform the collector before selling it. At the same time, full information including the proper reason for selling the property and who is buying the property has to be given. After this, the local collector cross-checks this information. The collector approves the deal only if he finds this information appropriate and does not alter the demography of the area.

‘I had it the worst in terms of verbal, sexual, and physical abuse’: Somy Ali claims Salman Khan had ‘tons of flings’ while dating her

OpIndia Staff
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‘I had it the worst in terms of verbal, sexual, and physical abuse’: Somy Ali claims Salman Khan had ‘tons of flings’ while dating her

Pakistsan-origin former Bollywood actress and ex-girlfriend of Bollywood actor Salman Khan has made yet again levelled some serious allegations against the actor. In an Instagram post, Somy Ali shared a vintage photograph of hers and claimed that the eight years that she spent in a relationship with Salman Khan were the worst years of her existence. 

The former actress alleged that Salman Khan had ‘tons of affairs and flings’ and would leave no opportunity to belittle her. “After having tons of affairs and flings he would constantly belittle me by calling me ugly, stupid, and dumb,” Somy Ali wrote in her Instagram post.

Furthermore, Somy Ali stated that Salman Khan for a long time did not publicly acknowledge her as his girlfriend, and finally when he did, he often berated her in front of his friends.

Saying that she has no qualms about it, the former actress said that she had multiple affairs while she was in a relationship with Salman Khan which she ‘essentially’ defines as a search for someone who would care for her, love her and not insult her. However, Ali adds that all the men she had affairs with were “simply using her.”

She further highlighted the alleged sexist mindset of Salman Khan saying that after knowing about her affairs with other men, Salman Khan told her that only men can cheat and not women. She concluded her long caption saying that “I had it worst in terms of verbal, sexual, and physical abuse.”

In another Instagram post, this time a video, Somy Ali said that she was ‘provoked’ by Salman Khan to speak out against him as the actor approached Discovery Plus channel to ban her show ‘Fight of Flight’.

“Mr. Khan has provoked me by banning my show, ‘Fight of Flight,’ which enabled us to rescue victims from India. We rescued 82% of the victims who were Indian women. Mr. Salman Khan has hindered this process by approaching Discovery Plus and asking that our show be banned in India. This is why, after 20 years, it took courage for me to speak out in order to save the lives of Indian men, women, children, and members of the LGBTQ community. He took it away from us, which is why I spoke up,” Ali stated in the video.

Answering one of the questions that why she spoke about what happened to her, she urged people to educate themselves about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and why it takes a long time for people to come out of it and be able to speak about what they have been through.

She further sought an apology from the Bollywood actor for his alleged wrongdoings. However, she adds that an “egomaniac and narcissistic individual” like Salman Khan would never do.

“What I want from Mr. Salman Khan is for him to admit what he did to me, including verbal, sexual, and physical abuse. And I want a public apology, which a narcissistic person would never do,” she concluded.

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